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"1169 And Counting is a wealth of information on our Republican past and present , and demonstrates how the Irish political landscape , like that of any nation, will never be a black and white issue..."

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Wednesday, May 09, 2012

'THERE WILL BE ANOTHER DAY.....'By Peadar O'Donnell ; first published in January 1963.

I lost touch with the trade union movement towards the end of 1920 , but I never doubted for a moment that it was on watch waiting its turn , and that all of us who went out from it , and held commands in the IRA , would one day rest ourselves on it. It would have been blasphemy to suggest that men like O'Brien and Foran would desert the independence movement in the wake of the treacherous middle class.
It is a very great pity that the Labour leaders of 1921 have not created any literature to explain what influenced them then - they no longer had the excuse that they were the custodians of trade union unity. The simple explanation here , too , is probably the real one : the trade union leaders in 1921 were not aware of the intense IRA loyalty to the Republic * and were probably misled by the superficial views of IRA spokesmen , whose political immaturity ** must have been very clear to them.
They may have been discouraged by the knowledge that mass leadership no longer rested in them - the prompter's stool wins a man no public following. Individual trade union leaders still enjoyed great personal prestige and had easy access to leaders on either side , but they no longer had any power to influence events , short of taking their stand on the Republican side.....
(* Why didn't those trade union leaders make it their business to find out where exactly the IRA stood in relation to issues that both organisations would have had concerns about ? ** The "political immaturity" mentioned, in this instance , could be said to belong to the TU leaders rather than to the IRA...)(MORE LATER).

THE PETER BERRY PAPERS....... The Top Secret Memoirs of Ireland's Most Powerful Civil Servant : Dirty Tricks, Election '69/ Spying on a Unionist Politician/ Keeping the (State) Taoiseach informed/ The Garda Fallon Murder/ Advice to Jack Lynch- 'Fire the pair of them...'/ Vivion De Valera's advice to O'Malley/ Rumours of a Coup D'Etat/ The Internment Plot, November 1970/ Secret Meeting with William Craig.From 'MAGILL' magazine , June 1980.MAY 25TH 1970 :" Mr Haughey issued a statement to the press : ' I now categorically state that at no time have I taken part in any illegal importation or attempted importation of arms into this country' ".MAY 27TH 1970 :" Arrest of Captain James Kelly , John Kelly and Albert Luykx who were charged in the Dublin District Court with conspiring with persons unknown to import arms into the State in contravention of the Firearms Act 1925 between 1st March and 24th April 1970. Next morning , Mr Haughey and Mr Blaney were placed under arrest and were similarly charged. They were remanded on bail. " JUNE 3RD 1970 :" I entered a nursing home at 96 Lower Leeson Street in Dublin , attached to St. Vincent's Hospital , for the check-over arranged for in Mount Carmel in the month of November when the surgeon had wanted to 'look inside' at my stomach where he thought there might be incipient carcinoma. It was a time of anxiety for me. I resumed duty on June 15th 1970 , having been given a clean bill of health , but I had been through a period of great mental strain for eight months under the medical adviser's opinion that I have cancer.
And on top of that I had found myself placed in the dreadful position in anticipation of having to give evidence in a criminal court against my former Minister , Mr. Haughey , for whom in preceeding years I had had feelings of respect and admiration...."(MORE LATER).

'ONE' STILL HASN'T FOUND WHAT 'ONE' IS LOOKING FOR.....

In Dublin city centre last Saturday (5th May 2012) , whilst helping to distribute leaflet 'packs' for the Hunger-Strikers Commemoration , I couldn't help but to notice the amount of 'chuggers' working in the area : not the best of jobs , definitely , for those in the hi-viz jackets carrying the buckets but , it seems , their office/management colleagues have the easier and better-paid end of it in the bag(/bucket).
In 2002 , Bono helped to set-up the 'DATA' ('Debt , Aids, Trade , Africa')organisation which ,in 2004, helped to set-up the 'ONE' Campaign Group , to 'Make Poverty History' -

- in 2008 , 'DATA' and 'ONE' combined forces under the name 'ONE' - in that same year , the 'new' organisation took in $14,993,873 in public donations , of which more than $8 million was spent on executive and employee salaries and only $184,732 was distributed to three charities.....

"You took HOW MUCH out of it.....??!!"...which would seem to indicate that the best part of $7 million fell victim to the 'Liza' dimension of this field of work (or maybe it was spent on shoebox-size giftpacks to impress their friends ?) but , whatever about that particular aspect of things , the fact remains that this Bono-related 'charitable' organisation collected over 81 times as much as it donated in 2008 : more than $14 million in the same year (2008) that its management paid themselves over $8 million following which they divided $184,732 of the remaining 'take' between three charities. 'Crumbs from the table' , so to speak , and 'food for thought' next time a 'chugger' attempts to 'mug' you on the streets......!CLONMEL CROWD......

.....SCRAMBLE TO BUY 'SECOND SUNDAY' RAFFLE TICKETS !Word has apparently spread in Clonmel and elsewhere in Tipperary following the good fortune of Maire , James and Derek at the monthly Irish Republican raffle last month in a Kildare hotel , and myself and the other five Dubs that run the event for the Republican Movement have been scrambling around for the past week hoping to locate unsold raffle tickets for the event this weekend - but no luck , so far ! All those that take a 'Standing Order'-amount of tickets from us , ranging from between 5 and 25 and 30 and 150 each, have already sold same and , indeed , some of them contacted us , looking for extra tickets!This raffle will be held on Sunday coming , 13th May 2012, in the usual hotel venue which , no doubt, will be 'populated' by our culchie cousins from Kildare , Tipperary and elsewhere , leaving just us six Dubs to declare eight winners from the lot of them - and a lot of non-winners from outside the Pale to be wished , in our best Dub brogue - 'Ah sure better luck next time....' : all going well , if we get out of the hotel in one piece (!) , I'll post the names of the winners and their ticket numbers here on Sunday evening or sometime on Monday. If , however , you don't hear from me , send out a search party.....!Thanks for reading,
Sharon.